Page 105 of Goose

Goose

Watching Ally work drew me to her more than any article of clothing or hairstyle ever could. I found it oddly attractive to watch her being so focused on something that a stick of dynamite exploding couldn’t take her mind from it.

The look of satisfaction she wore after the dial finally clicked into place was payment enough for me. The money was nothing more than icing on the cake.

She reached for the handle. As it began to spin, I clapped my hands together. “Six minutes, fifty seconds.”

She grinned. “Getting better.”

Her red and black body paint theme had Cash so pissed off he couldn’t see straight. I didn’t know if she suggested it because she thought it’d piss him off, or if she really believed the cheerleader thing could easily be overdone.

When the handle came to a stop, Tito and I pulled against the door. It swung open, revealing what appeared to be several metal boxes stacked on the floor. One was set aside from the others, and it was clearly marked “drawers” in black ink. The others appeared to have no markings.

I stopped and stared. The boxes, roughly eighteen inches wide, three feet long, and six inches tall, looked like very large safe deposit boxes.

“What the fuck are those?”

Ally stepped past me. “Lockboxes.”

Tito and I attempted to open them, only to find that they were, as Ally indicated, locked.

I scanned the floor. “There’s twelve of these motherfuckers over here, and one over there.” I looked at Ally. “What do we do?”

Tito hefted one to check the weight. “They’re about thirty, forty pounds apiece.”

“Do we take ‘em, or just go?” I asked. “It’s going to be a clusterfuck loading them up. Fuck, there’s thirteen of ‘em. Who knows what’s in ‘em. Is it worth it?”

“If they’re what I think they are,” Ally said. “We need to take them.”

“What do you think they are?”

“Someone’s planning on making a huge withdrawal tomorrow,” she said. “They’ve scheduled it in advance, and this is the pre-tallied withdrawal from the Federal reserve.”

“These twelve boxes are full of money?”

She nodded. “Banks lock large sums of money in lockboxes all the time. Especially if it’s scheduled to go out.”

I held out my arms. “Load me up, Tito. We’ll hustle these fuckers to the car.”

“No. First scan them for GPS devices.” She looked at Tito. “You’ve got your gadgets, right?”

“I do.”

“Scan them with an RF scanner and whatever else you have. Make sure neither the boxes or the money has a tracker.”

Tito scanned each box with something that looked like a walkie-talkie. He looked at each of us. “They’re clean. We’re good to go.”

“There’s no way we can get all of these in one load.” She looked the boxes over. “Hauling them from here to the car will take forever.”

I forced a sigh. “What do you suggest?”

“We’ll stack them all inside the door, first. Get Cash and Reno to help you two carry them to the car. I’ll get the liftgate open and situate them in the back. Two trips, no more than two boxes each. More than that, and someone will drop one.”

“She’s got a good point,” Tito said.

Without further discussion, Ally carried one of the boxes to the door.

She was right. Stacking them inside the door would make our trips to the car shorter, minimizing our exposure in the parking lot. Tito and I followed her, fumbling to carry two boxes each.